James 4:10

“Humble yourselves before the Lord,
and He will lift you up.”
James 4:10

Humbling ourselves means recognizing
that our worth comes from God alone.

I will praise You in this storm!

“In our lives there is bound to come some pain, surely as there are storms and falling rain; just believe that the One who holds the storms will bring the sun.”


All of us face storms in our life at one time or another. Some storms are big and scary storms that seem to last forever, others are small storms that just get us a little dreary and gloom. No matter how big or small these storms are, they make life difficult for us. Question is, why do we have storms in our life? Why does God allow these storms to come into our lives? Well, in the 1st place, no one, not even Jesus said that life would be easy. Life isn't easy, that's for sure. But another thing that we can be sure about is that God is walking through it with us.

It's very easy to praise God for the things He has done for us when everything is bright and sunny, when things just seem to be going the right direction. It's easy to praise God when we are not facing any difficulties in our life. Why wouldn't we praise God? I mean everything is going just perfect! But what about when we are facing tough times in our lives? Do we praise God in these storms? Even when it is so hard to, the answer is Yes. We praise God, because when God allows a storm to come into our life, He has a reason for it, and He will either calm the storm for us, or He will just ride through it with us. God will never leave us in the storm. So we will praise God, because we know that He is with us.

So why does God put us through these storms? There are 2 main reasons:

1.To change our stubborn thinking and mindsets, so that we can walk in His direction.
This can be seen in the example of Jonah. You see, Jonah was running away from God's calling of going to Nineveh to preach. He got onto a ship and then faced a violent storm. Well, it's a long story, but eventually Jonah was thrown overboard the ship into the sea as he is identified by the sailors for causing the storm as he has incurred God'd wrath. But well, that was not the end of Jonah. In Jonah 1:17, it says "But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights." Isn't this wonderful? God didn't let Jonah die in the storm. God was riding with Jonah through the storm, sending a big fish to help Jonah keep alive in the storm! Well, to cut the story short, after spending the time in the fish stomach, Jonah finally soften his heart to God's calling and went to Nineveh to preach against it, thus saving the entire city from God's judgment. You see, this storm that God puts Jonah through was obviously aimed at softening Jonah's stubborness against the calling of God. Aren't we like Jonah sometimes, refusing to listen to the will of God and thus facing a storm that God put in our life? I myself admit to this. But do not be disheartened, God put this storm in our life only for our own good, and He will ride through it with us.

2.To make us depend on His power.
Many a times, when we are so blessed and have lived a sunny life for too long, we get a little complacent and forgot God's blessing upon our life. We will tend to feel that we do not need God in our life anymore. When this happen, God will put a storm in our life to remind us that we still need to depend on Him as we are not as great we think we are. In Mark 4:35~41, we see that Jesus and his disciples were in a boat when a storm caught them. At that point of time, Jesus was still asleep. So the storm was really violent and the disciples got scared. So they woke Jesus up and Jesus rebuked the winds, calming the storm in the end. After that, the disciples were rebuked for having no faith because they were afraid. In this case, the storm was calmed. All that was intended was for the disciples to learn that they had to depend on Jesus and for them to realise their own state of faithlessness. I believe that before this, the disciples were probably thinking that they were mighty and strong in their faith. The storm made them realise their weakness and made them lean onto Jesus for help. This is true in our lives as well. Sometimes we will face storms in our life to make us realise that we are not as great as we thought we are and we eventually still need to go back to God for His strength and protection. But we do not have to fret, because God is in control all along and the storm will eventually be calmed.

In conclusion:

God puts these storms in our lives only for our own good, to make us learn, and that He is always looking after us, either by riding through the storm with us or by calming the storm in the end.

“May God give you... For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.”

I heart me ♥

You don’t have to travel too far around the world to discover very quickly that God loves variety. He’s made all kinds of shapes, sizes, colors, intensities; an incredible variety in our world.

Talking specifically about you and me, there are 3 verses in the Bible that say important truths about us:

Psalm 139:13 (Good News), “You (God) created every part of me. You put me
together in my mother’s womb.”
Vs. 14 (LB), “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous.”
Job 10:8, “Your hands shaped me and made me.”

From these verses you can take some obvious principles:

1. I am unique. You are unique. There is nobody else in the world like you or me. There never will be. When God made you He broke the mold. You won’t find two people in the whole world who have the same footprint or fingerprint or voiceprint. Why did God make you different from every person who’s ever lived? Because He wants you to know how special you are, how much you matter to God.

2. We are wonderfully complex. You might say, ok define complex? If you check the dictionary definition, something complex is characterized by a very complicated or involved arrangement of parts, units, etc. The fact is we are so complex that many times we are a mystery to ourselves.

• Have you ever said something and later thought, ‘What was I thinking when I said that?”

• Have you ever felt a certain way and later thought, “Why do I feel thisway? What’s happening to me?”

• Have you ever been in a group and everybody reacted one way to a circumstance and you found yourself reacting in the exact opposite way to everyone else in the group? Inside you’re thinking, “What’s wrong with me?” There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re just unique.

3. We were shaped for a purpose! God created everything in the world for a purpose, the Bible says, including you.

• You’re not here by accident. You’re not just taking up space. God made you for a reason.

• You were designed by God and it was His idea. It’s not a mistake. You were planned before birth. God did not simply sit down at a computer and randomly access a bunch of components and threw them all together and out came you.

• The Bible clearly says that you were purposefully, personally and orderly planned and designed by God. Check this out: His loving hand made you exactly the way you are. You are you because God wanted you to be you. Isn't that awesome!

• Your uniqueness is what God wants you to offer to the world. He wants you to be special :)

So just tell yourself this:
God made me. God loves me.


Btw check out this song!!
Group 1 Crew-Live out Loud
here's the Youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=220bES6hV-k
here's the lyrics link:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/live-out-loud-lyrics-group-1-crew.html
It's amazing and speaks about how amazing God created you and me :D

New Year, new challenges

A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow. Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in 2009?

It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not someone else's word - this is YOUR word. One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities.

New Year is the time to unfold new horizons and realize new dreams, to rediscover the strength and faith within you, to rejoice in simple pleasures and gear up for new challenges.

Take some time this week to think about your own word for 2009!

And in case you were wondering, my word for 2009 is give.

Wishing you a truly fulfilling New Year!!